Oceanic has entered the manned test phase yesterday with the first free, off the hook testing. For the last two weeks we have been testing and improving launch and recovery and pulling together the details. The first manned test by Chief Pilot Chris Welsh was brief; life support was good, and launch and recovery went well. In the water, we powered forward on the surface but had small programming issues in the fly by wire programming; this was to be expected as the system needs fine tuning that can only be fully tested under load. In parallel to new aircraft testing, this was the equivalent of high speed taxiing.

The next step will be getting back in the water next week with the software tuned up for first dives. We have three ballast states, Descent (negative 500 lbs), Flight (neutral +/-), and Ascent (500 lbs buoyant). Testing in the next week will be first in Ascent mode, then Flight, and the first actual dives will be powering down in Flight mode. Fully ballasted Descent mode will not take place until all other aspects of the sub are sorted.

For those curious about safety and recovery of resources, we have fitted a buoy and a high strength line on a buoy that trails the sub. This allows the surface boats to know positively where the sub is at all times, and the line is strong enough to use to recover the sub if needed. A primary and standby diver are on hand and operations are conducted in shallow water within easy diver depth, i.e. 80 feet or less. The steel ballast weights (total 1,000 pounds) and hardware are about $1,500 per set, so floats and a retrieval line are used so they can be recovered as well....

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

A combination of low oxygen, strong winds and a traffic jam of climbers likely led to the death of a Canadian who reached the top of Mount Everest this weekend but failed to make it back down alive.

Shriya Shah-Klorfine, 33, died over the weekend while descending the south summit of Mount Everest. She collapsed during the descent and is believed to have died from exhaustion.

Jim Elzinga, an accomplished high-altitude climber who has led expeditions up Everest twice, says it's difficult to explain how exhausted one becomes while climbing Everest, whose peak protrudes into the stratosphere to 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level.

"Especially above 8,000 metres, if you take one step, it will take 10 breaths just to recover. And then you take another step and need another 10 breaths to recover," he explained to CTV's Canada AM Tuesday.

"So it's very, very slow and arduous and it becomes largely a big mental game to keep yourself going upwards."

Dr. Greg Wells, a physiologist and scientist who specializes in health and performance in extreme conditions, says getting enough oxygen to fuel the heart and brains at high altitudes becomes extremely difficult as the atmosphere thins.

"The pressure in the atmosphere decreases (at high altitudes), so there's less drive of oxygen into the body," he says.

That causes energy levels in the body to drop, for muscles to fatigue easily and makes it difficult to concentrate.

Everyone who climbs Everest tries to account for the change in altitude by giving their body time to acclimatize. In some cases, the process works well, and the body learns to deal with the lower oxygen, creating more red blood cells, says Wells.

At other times, the body doesn't cope, leading to the headaches, nausea, and dizziness of altitude sickness.

"When you ascend altitude, your maximum heart rate actually drops, and at some point it reaches your resting heart rate. So you can imagine that simply standing is almost near your maximum," says Wells.

Bottled supplemental oxygen certainly helps, but Elzinga says there are only so many bottles that climbers can carry.

"The challenge with oxygen is that it only lasts a certain amount of time. And so if you're delayed and you run out, that causes people to get into a lot of difficulty," he says.

Such delays are becoming even more common these days, now that there are so many commercial outfits that arrange for tourists to climb Everest.

Sharon Wood was the first North American woman to make the climb successfully back in 1986.

Wood says too many people attempt the feat today and put pressure on themselves to complete the climb.

"I think people get summit fever and it's very hard for them to turn back. Their reasons for being there in the first place are suspect," said Wood. "To me how it looks is people are pulling a dream off the shelf and saying I want to climb Mount Everest so I really have something to account for. So I feel like a hero without any idea of what that entails."

There is only a short window all year in which climbers can try to summit Everest and that's now, in May. Most of the year, the summit is hit by monsoon-force winds. It is only for a few weeks in May that these winds die down to allow a short seven- to 10-day window for climbers to attempt to summit.

With more than 100 people going up to the summit on any given day during that window, it can become quite crowded at the top, says Elzinga.

"Especially above the last camp on the South Col, from there up to the summit, it's a very narrow ridge," he says. "And there's a particular spot, called the Hillary Step, where if climbers are coming down, you have to wait for them to come down before you get a chance to go up."

Gyanendra Shrestha of Nepal's Mountaineering Department told The Canadian Press that 150 climbers reached Everest's summit on Friday and Saturday, but by Saturday afternoon, a windstorm had set in.

Progress to descend was slow and many had to remain in the dangerous "death zone" above the last camp at the South Col longer than usual, Shrestha said.

The zone is so called because of the low oxygen level, steep icy slope and the fact that dozens of climbers' bodies lay abandoned there.

At least three other climbers died on Saturday along with Shriya Shah-Klorfine: 61-year-old German Dr. Eberhard Schaaf; South Korean mountaineer Song Won-bin; and a 55-year-old Chinese climber named Wang-yi Fa. The last man's Nepalese Sherpa guide is still missing.

Shah-Klorfine hoped to become the first South Asian woman from Canada to ascend the world's highest peak.

Shriya Shah-Klorfine on OMNI News South Asian Edition

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Captain Kellogg participated in the battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, and Gettysburg. It was during the great Fight in the Wilderness, while the Iron Brigade was of the Army of the Potomac, that our author was captured (May 5, 1864) by Confederates, while he was doing skirmish duty on special detail. Imprisoned successively at Lynchburg and Danville (Virginia), Macon (Georgia), and Charleston (South Carolina), he escaped on October 5....

The story of his depressing experiences in Confederate prisons, and of his curious adventures while a fugitive after the escape, is told in the present volume. A man of acute intellect, resourceful, and courageous in an unusual degree, Captain Kellogg's narrative is a document of great human interest. His literary style is as vivid as his experiences were thrilling, and the modest tale is certain to hold the attention of the most jaded reader of war-time reminiscences. The Commission considers itself fortunate in being able to include in this series so admirable a paper.

While Captain Kellogg was absent in captivity, or before his safe return to the Union lines at Calhoun, Georgia (October 26), he was twice promoted: September 1, to be Major of his regiment; October 19, to be its Lieutenant-Colonel. Soon after assuming the last-named office (November), he was made Colonel of the regiment. Being assigned to the command of the Iron Brigade in February, 1865, he led that redoubtable organization in the battles of Hatcher's Run, Boydon Plank Road, Gravel Run, Five Forks, High Bridge, and Appomattox. On the 9th of April he was deservedly brevetted brigadier-general, "for highly meritorious service during the campaign terminating with the surrender of the insurgent army under General Robert E. Lee," and on July 14 following was mustered out....

Willard W. Glazier, The Capture, the Prison Pen, and the Escape (1870)

It has been my aim in the preparation of these pages, to give a plain, unvarnished narrative of facts and incidents of Prison Life, as they occurred under my own observation during an experience of fourteen months, in various Southern Prisons.

They do not pretend to give a complete history of that eventful period — only a part. Others are contributing sketches for the dark picture, which, at the best, can but poorly illustrate the fearful atrocities of our brutal keepers.

The multiplied woes of the battle-field, and the sufferings of the sick and wounded in hospitals which the Federal Government has established, might almost be considered the enjoyments of Paradise, when compared with the heart-rending and prolonged agonies of Captives in Rebel Stockades.

Sad and painful as it seems in the former case, there are a great variety of mitigating circumstances which tend to soothe the feelings as we contemplate them. Their sufferings are of comparatively short duration, surrounded as they are by those who never tire in their efforts to provide comfort and relief. Members of the numerous humane societies can visit them and attend to their wants; but in the latter case they have passed the boundary which bars them from all these things....

W.H. Newlin, An Account of the Escape of Six Federal Soldiers from Prison at Danville, Va. (1870)

Their travels by night through the enemy's country to the Union pickets at Gauley bridge, West Virginia, in the winter of 1863-64.

In those "stirring times," during the late war, when powder, and ball, and the bayonet were the orders of the day, an escape from prison and a secret, hidden march through the Confederacy, was accounted an exciting, as well as a very lucky event. Even at this day, accounts of such are not stale, but possess a thrilling interest, especially to those who participated in them and to their friends. Our journey over mountain and valley, over hill and dale, and across rivers, branches, and rivulets almost innumerable, was accomplished mostly in the night time.

We had neither map nor compass to guide us. The north star alone served us in shaping our course, and very often it was concealed by ominous clouds. We took many needless steps, and made many needless and weary miles in consequence of lack of knowledge of the country and of the course we were steering. Sometimes the desolate hour of Winter's midnight found us far from the public highway, and almost inextricably involved in the brush and tangled mazes of the forest. At such times, being almost at our wit's end, we would try to advance on a "bee line" until the open country or some road was reached.

At one time, when much bewildered in the shadowy woods, in night time, we began to despair of success. We sat down to contemplate our condition and our cheerless prospect. Had an enemy been approaching us we could have well-nigh welcomed him, so he brought deliverance. At length the stillness and thick darkness of the night made our loneliness oppressive, and we groped on. Soon we found a road, and realized that the "darkest hour is just before day."...

A brief narrative from the Southern side:

Frank H. Rahm, Reminiscences of His Capture and Escape from Prison (1895)

And adventures within the Federal lines by a member of Mosby's command, with a narrative by a C.S. naval officer

On placing before the public this account of my escape from Germany and some episodes from my life in two prison camps, I feel that I must make clear that it was only due to the fact that I had two definite supplementary objects to attain, that I succeeded in making myself launch out in the following pages.

The first of these objects is to add my quota to the information before the public relating to the treatment and existence of those who, in prisons in Germany, have suffered and are suffering for their country.

My second object is to try to throw a little light on the marvellous spirit of the prisoners as a whole.

Laugh, oh laugh loud, all ye who long agoAdventure found in gallant company!Safe in stagnation; laugh, laugh bitterly,While on this filthiest backwater of time's flow.Drift we and rot till something set us free.

It is always a fight against this sort of thing that the prisoner of war is waging. Some apparently find such a fight difficult, but the majority do somehow keep a hold on themselves and retain their energy and hopefulness.

"Barbed-wire" disease is now officially recognised, and internment in neutral countries of those who have done the longest spells in prison is the outcome of this....

There is a common idea that the age of miracles is past. Perhaps it is, but if so, the change must have come about within the past few weeks — after I escaped into Holland. For if anything is certain in this life it is this: this book never would have been written but for the succession of miracles set forth in these pages.

Miracles, luck, coincidence, Providence — it doesn't matter much what you call it — certainly played an important part in the series of hairbreadth escapes in which I figured during my short but eventful appearance in the great drama now being enacted across the seas. Without it, all my efforts and sufferings would have been quite unavailing....

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

New information gives a clearer picture of what happened 75 years ago to Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, where they came down and how they likely survived – for a while, at least – as castaways on a remote island.

Eighty years ago, when the story told in these pages was first published, "forecastle yarns" were more thrilling than they are now. In these days we look for information in regard to a new land's capabilities for pastoral, agricultural, and commercial pursuits; in those days it was customary, with a large portion of the British public, at any rate, to expect sailors to tell stories

Of the cannibals that each other eat,The Anthropophagi, and men whose headsDo grow beneath their shoulders,

and to relate other particulars likely to arrest the attention and excite the imagination. Men then sailed to unknown lands, peopled by unknown barbarians, and their adventures in strange and mysterious countries were clothed in a romance which has been almost completely dispelled by the telegraph, the newspaper press, cheap books, and rapid transit, and by the utilitarian ideas which have swept over the world.

It was largely to meet the public taste for something wonderful and striking that John Rutherford's story of adventures in New Zealand saw the light of publicity. In fairness to the original editor and the publisher, however, it should be stated that the story was given also as a means of supplying interesting information in regard to a country and a race of which very little was then known. It was embodied in a book of 400 pages, entitled 'The New Zealanders," published in 1830, for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, by the famous publisher, Charles Knight....

Rutherford, as his narrative shows, was ten years amongst the Maoris. He was an ignorant sailor. He could not write, and the account of his adventures, it is explained, was dictated to a friend while he was on the voyage back to England. Craik says that if allowance is made for some grammatical solecisms, the story, as it appeared in the manuscript, was told with great clearness, and sometimes with considerable spirit....

Unfortunately there are many points on which the narrative is not only inaccurate but misleading....

Whatever Rutherford 's object may have been, and whether he deceived the author and publisher of "The New Zealanders," or merely erred through ignorance and lack of observation, there is no doubt that he spent some years with the Maoris in the northern part of New Zealand. His tattooed face is sufficient evidence of that. The pattern is the Maori "moko." The tattooing on his breast, stomach, and arms, however, is not the work of Maoris; that was done, probably, by natives at some of the islands, or by sailors. I hardly think that those who read the narrative will agree with Bishop Williams's opinion that it is "a mere romance." It is more like the story of an ignorant, unobservant, careless sailor, who entertained no idea that any importance would be attached to his statements. Many mistakes were probably made in the work of dictating the narrative to a fellow-sailor....

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

New information gives a clearer picture of what happened 75 years ago to Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, where they came down and how they likely survived – for a while, at least – as castaways on a remote island.

.

.

I fly since 1965 .. have flown all Middle East, flown lots in Europe .. and a lot in Canada, including float plane .. have totaled one plane and had engine fail over Canadian Rocky, had to land without engine power on dirt road next to a dam

and

IMVVHO

flying 75 years ago with one of those planes over pacific was stupid .. chances that things might happen with fatal outcome was very very high .. she was reckless, poor navigator

AzariLoveIran wrote:I fly since 1965 .. have flown all Middle East, flown lots in Europe .. and a lot in Canada, including float plane .. have totaled one plane and had engine fail over Canadian Rocky, had to land without engine power on dirt road next to a dam

and

IMVVHO

flying 75 years ago with one of those planes over pacific was stupid .. chances that things might happen with fatal outcome was very very high .. she was reckless, poor navigator .

Not stupid: maximally difficult, and therefore extremely risky. Unless someone pushes the limits, there is no high adventure and only dubious prospects of progress. Who dares wins.

As for the rest, all the evidence is that she almost made it, and the outcome could very easily have been quite different -- if, for example, the navy or coast guard had responded to her distress calls.

And she had a skilled navigator. The issue is whether she listened to him.

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Apparently Jack Hays, Texas Ranger leader and founder of Oakland, Calfornia, never wrote his memoirs, so third person accounts of his exploits (and those of his colleagues) have to do. For anyone with a fetish for cowboys and revolvers:

A.J. Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers of Texas (1884)

With a concise account of the early settlements, hardships, massacres, battles, and wars by which Texas was rescued from the rule of the savage and consecrated to the empire of civilization.

In the following pages the Author has attempted to recite a part of what is as yet the unwritten history of the country. Many brave and heroic men have lived and died, and did their country glorious service upon the frontiers of Texas, whose names have as yet found no place in history. They were the men who cut the brush and blazed the way for immigration, and drove the wild beast and the red man from the path of civilization. They bore the heat and burden of the day, and their deeds should live, like monuments, in the hearts of their countrymen. Where commerce now holds its prosperous marts was then the camping ground and rendezvous of these rangers and pioneers. The incidents of history herein contained have been gathered from sources most reliable, and he that peruses this volume may feel assured that he is not reading fiction, but facts which form part of the history of Texas. If this volume serves the purpose for which it is written, i.e. that the names and deeds of these good and brave men may not be forgotten, and the writer occupy one fresh green spot in the folds of their memory, he will not think his labor has been in vain.

One recent work that evidently deals with Jack Hays is S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, New York: Scribner, 2010

I fly since 1965 .. have flown all Middle East, flown lots in Europe .. and a lot in Canada, including float plane .. have totaled one plane and had engine fail over Canadian Rocky, had to land without engine power on dirt road next to a dam

and

IMVVHO

flying 75 years ago with one of those planes over pacific was stupid .. chances that things might happen with fatal outcome was very very high .. she was reckless, poor navigator

.

Not stupid: maximally difficult, and therefore extremely risky. Unless someone pushes the limits, there is no high adventure and only dubious prospects of progress. Who dares wins.

As for the rest, all the evidence is that she almost made it, and the outcome could very easily have been quite different -- if, for example, the navy or coast guard had responded to her distress calls.

And she had a skilled navigator. The issue is whether she listened to him.

.

@ that time, with that kind of plane and that kind of radio com and that kind of radio navigation, there was 100+ things that could have gone wrong

each of that 100+ gone wrong would have lead to her certain death

in fact, if she managed to land on an isolate "coral" Island mid pacific, that itself was more than a miracle

IMO, if she had made it, it would be a miracle

and

@ long distances over water, over pacific, at those heights (low altitude), even a skilled navigator is a crap shoot

IMO, she was driven to more and more risky venture without realizing the risks .. well luck is not always with you

This three-dimensional view from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows an unusual, lumpy rock informally named "Wopmay" on the lower slopes of "Endurance Crater." Opportunity took the frames that make up this image on the rover's 250th martian day, or sol, on Oct. 6, 2004. Later, Opportunity investigated the rock with instruments on its robotic arm. The rock's informal name refers to Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, a Canadian bush pilot. Scientists believe that the lumps in Wopmay, like traits of "Escher" and other rocks dotting the bottom of Endurance Crater, may be related to cracking and alteration processes, possibly caused by exposure to water. The area between intersecting sets of cracks appears to have eroded in a way that shaped the lumpy appearance. Wopmay measures approximately 1 meter (3.3 feet) across.

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Until now, I have always resisted including the Lewis and Clark Expedition through fear that Americans might be bored with the Corps of Discovery due to overexposure. Nonetheless, the exploits of those gentlemen fully entitle them to be included. So, to mark the Fourth of July:

National Geographic - Lewis and Clark Great Journey West

Last edited by Antipatros on Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

This morning we set out about sunrise after taking breakfast off our venison and fish. we again ascended the hills of the river and gained the level country. the country through which we passed for the first six miles tho' more roling than that we had passed yesterday might still with propryety be deemed a level country; our course as yesterday was generally S W. the river from the place we left it appeared to make a considerable bend to the South. from the extremity of this roling country I overlooked a most beatifull and level plain of great extent or at least 50 or sixty miles; in this there were infinitely more buffaloe than I had ever before witnessed at a view. nearly in the direction I had been travling or S. W. two curious mountains presented themselves of square figures, [1] the sides rising perpendicularly to the hight of 250 feet and appeared to be formed of yellow clay; their tops appeared to be level plains; these inaccessible hights appeared like the ramparts of immence fortifications; I have no doubt but with very little assistance from art they might be rendered impregnable. fearing that the river boar to the South and that I might pass the falls if they existed between this an the snowey mountains I altered my course nealy to the South leaving those insulated hills to my wright and proceeded through the plain; I sent Feels on my right and Drewyer and Gibson on my left with orders to kill some meat and join me at the river where I should halt for dinner. I had proceded on this course about two miles with Goodrich at some distance behind me whin my ears were saluted with the agreeable sound of a fall of water and advancing a little further I saw the spray arrise above the plain like a collumn of smoke which would frequently dispear again in an instant caused I presume by the wind which blew pretty hard from the S. W. I did not however loose my direction to this point which soon began to make a roaring too tremendious to be mistaken for any cause short of the great falls of the Missouri. here I arrived about 12 OClock having traveled by estimate about 15 Miles. I hurryed down the hill which was about 200 feet high and difficult of access, to gaze on this sublimely grand specticle. [2] I took my position on the top of some rocks about 20 feet high opposite the center of the falls. this chain of rocks appear once to have formed a part of those over which the waters tumbled, but in the course of time has been seperated from it to the distance of 150 yards lying prarrallel to it and forming a butment against which the water after falling over the precipice beats with great fury; this barrier extends on the right to the perpendicular clift which forms that board [bound? border?] of the river but to the distance of 120 yards next to the clift it is but a few feet above the level of the water, and here the water in very high tides appears to pass in a channel of 40 yds. next to the higher part of the ledg of rocks; on the left it extends within 80 or ninty yards of the lard. Clift which is also perpendicular; between this abrupt extremity of the ledge of rocks and the perpendicular bluff the whole body of water passes with incredible swiftness. immediately at the cascade the river is about 300 yds. wide; about ninty or a hundred yards of this next the Lard. bluff is a smoth even sheet of water falling over a precipice of at least eighty feet, the remaining part of about 200 yards on my right formes the grandest sight I ever beheld, the hight of the fall is the same of the other but the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below receives the water in it's passage down and brakes it into a perfect white foam which assumes a thousand forms in a moment sometimes flying up in jets of sparkling foam to the hight of fifteen or twenty feet and are scarcely formed before large roling bodies of the same beaten and foaming water is thrown over and conceals them. in short the rocks seem to be most happily fixed to present a sheet of the whitest beaten froath for 200 yards in length and about 80 feet perpendicular....

Monday, March 19--Lunch. We camped with difficulty last night and were dreadfully cold till after our supper of cold pemmican and biscuit and half a pannikin of cocoa cooked over the spirit. Then, contrary to expectation, we got warm and all slept well. To-day we started in the usual dragging manner. Sledge dreadfully heavy. We are 15½ miles from the depot and ought to get there in three days. What progress! We have two days' food but barely a day's fuel. All our feet are getting bad -- Wilson's best, my right foot worst, left all right. There is a chance to nurse one's feet till we can get hot food into us. Amputation is the least I can hope for now, but will the trouble spread? That is the serious question. The weather doesn't give us a chance -- the wind from N. to N.W. and -40⁰ temp. to-day.

Wednesday, March 21--Got within 11 miles of depot Monday night; had to lay up all yesterday in severe blizzard. To-day forlorn hope, Wilson and Bowers going to depot for fuel.

22 and 23--Blizzard bad as ever -- Wilson and Bowers unable to start -- tomorrow last chance -- no fuel and only one or two of food left -- must be near the end. Have decided it shall be natural -- we shall march for the depot with or without our effects and die in our tracks.

[Thursday] March 29--Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.

R. Scott

Last entry.For God's sake look after our people.

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Being the narrative of a bicycle ride of nineteen thousand two hundred and thrity-seven miles through seventeen countries and across three continents by John Foster Fraser, S. Edward Lunn, and F.H. Lowe

This is a book of travel. But unlike other books of travel, it is not clever or wise or scientific. There is nothing about anthropology or biology or archaeology. There are no theories about the transmission of language or about Sanskrit grammar. Sanskrit has ever been the last refuge of the learned.

We took this trip round the world on bicycles because we are more or less conceited, like to be talked about, and see our names in the newspapers. We didn't go into training. We took things easy. We jogged through Europe, had sundry experiences in Asia, and survived the criticisms of our country from the Americans. For two years we bicycled in strange lands, and came home a great disappointment to our friends. We were not haggard or worn, or tottering in our gait. We had never been scalped, or had hooks through our spines; never been tortured, or had our eyes gouged; never been rescued after living for a fortnight on our shoes. And we never killed a man. It was evident we were not real travellers.

Still, away somewhere in the back of our heads, we are rather proud of what we have done. We have accomplished the longest bicycle ride ever attempted, just 19,237 miles over continuous new ground. We were stoned by the Mohammedans because they alleged we were Christians, and we were pelted with mud in China because the Celestials were certain we were devils. We slept in wet clothes, subsisted on eggs, went hungry, and were enforced teetotalers. We had small-pox, fever, and other ailments. There were less than a dozen fights with Chinese mobs. We never shaved for five months, and only occasionally washed.

Our adventures therefore were of a humdrum sort. If only one of us had been killed, or if we had ridden back into London each minus a limb, some excitement would have been caused. As it was we came home quietly.

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Alter your route to Yellowstone to include Custer's Battlefield in Montana if such things are of interest to you. If so, do a little reading on the history of the event . . how Custer approached the Little Big Horn encampment, where he divided his force leaving Reno, and how it all ended at the last stand.

And while you're in that part of the country, get a Navajo taco somewhere along the way.

"The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Sampson's time." --- Richard Nixon******************"I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels."—John Calvin

Antipatros wrote:. . My wife usually leaves "the Army B.S." to me, but even she really enjoyed Custer Battlefield (near Billings).

The only place I've visited that compares is the Alamo . . I swear there's a spirit about both. The only other place that comes close is Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg, gazing across the distance Lee sent Pickett. That blood-soaked ground notwithstanding, one walks away thinking Lee must have been mad.

"The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Sampson's time." --- Richard Nixon******************"I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels."—John Calvin

Antipatros wrote:. . My wife usually leaves "the Army B.S." to me, but even she really enjoyed Custer Battlefield (near Billings).

The only place I've visited that compares is the Alamo . . I swear there's a spirit about both. The only other place that comes close is Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg, gazing across the distance Lee sent Pickett. That blood-soaked ground notwithstanding, one walks away thinking Lee must have been mad.

It's beautiful country, first and foremost. Casting an eye over the ravines and folds in the land and all the dead ground explains a lot about the battle. But I think it's mainly the light and the big sky that gives it its spirit. Being surrounded by the Crow reserve helps, too.

The last time we were there we had perfect weather at Virginia City and Custer Battelfield and torrential rains the rest of the trip. There were crashing thunderstorms, hail and tornado warnings every afternoon in Denver -- just like home!

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

His Majesty, soon after his accession to the crown, formed a design of sending out vessels for making discoveries of countries hitherto unknown, and in the year 1764, the kingdom being then in a state of profound peace, he proceeded to put it into execution. The Dolphin and the Tamar were dispatched under the command of Commodore Byron, and the best account of his Majefty's motives and design that can be given, will be found in the following preamble to Commodore Byron's instructions, which are dated the 17th of June in that year.

Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation, as a maritime power, to the dignity of the Crown of Great Britain, and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof, than to make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown; and whereas there is reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent, hitherto unvisited by any European power, may be found in the Atlantic Ocean, between the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellanic Straight, within the latitudes convenient for navigation, and in climates adapted to the produce of commodities useful in commerce; and whereas his Majesty's islands called Pepys' Island, and Falkland's Islands, lying within the said tract, notwithftanding their having been first discovered and visited by British navigators, have never yet been so sufficieutly surveyed as that an accurate judgment may De formed of their coasts and product; his Majesty taking the premises into consideration, and conceiving no conjuncture so proper for an enterprize of this nature, as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken.

The Dolphin was a man of war of the sixth rate, mounting twenty-four guns: her complement was 150 men, with three Lieutenants, and thirty-seven petty officers.

The Tamar was a sloop, mounting fixteen guns: her complement was ninety men, with three Lieutenants, and two and twenty petty officers, and the command o£ her was given to Captain Mouat.

Commodore Byron returned in the month of May in the year 1766, and in the month of August following, the Dolphin was again sent out, under the command of Captain Wallis, with the Swallow, commanded by Captain Carteret, in prosecution of the same general design of making discoveries in the southern hemisphere. The equipment of the Dolphin was the same as before. The Swallow was a sloop mounting fourteen guns; her complement was ninety men, with one Lieutenant, and twenty-two petty officers.

These vessels proceeded together till they came within sight of the South Sea, at the western entrance of the Streight of Magellan, and from thence returned by different routes to England....

Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager embody the very spirit and character of the word "pioneers." In December 1986, they became the first people to circumnavigate the world, nonstop, without refueling their plane, the Voyager. They also set world flight records in the process. Besides being the first team to travel nonstop around the globe--which was one of aviation's last record barriers--Rutan and Yeager also endured the longest flight to that date, and almost doubled the then current distance flight record. But their contributions did not stop there. They also explored the limits of human endurance and mental fatigue during their journey. To many, Rutan and Yeager's flight represented the triumph of human ingenuity as the two aviators overcame a wide range of aerodynamic, financial, physical, and psychological challenges.

Richard "Dick" Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California, on July 1, 1938. An eager individual, Rutan earned both his pilot's and driver's licenses on his 16th birthday. At the age of 19 he joined the Air Force Aviation Cadet Program and was later commissioned a lieutenant in the Air Force. He flew 325 missions over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War until September 1968, when his F-100 plane sustained a hit from enemy fire and he had to eject from his aircraft. He evaded capture and was rescued by American forces. Due to his exemplary military record, Rutan received the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals, and a Purple Heart.

The second Voyager pilot Jeana Yeager was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 18, 1952. By 1978, she had earned her pilot's license. During her early aviation career, Yeager mainly wanted to learn to fly helicopters, but her interests branched off and she turned her attention to high-performance aircraft. Yeager, who is no relation to the famous test pilot Chuck Yeager, first met Dick Rutan, and his brother Burt, at a California air show in 1980. At the time, Burt and Dick ran their own aircraft company. Interestingly, Yeager set four separate speed records in Rutan EZ planes in the early 1980s.

The Rutans originally conceived of the Voyager during a lunch in 1981. They believed that they could design a plane that could break the world distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 kilometers) set by a B-52 Air Force crew in 1962. Like many great innovators, they quickly sketched their ideas onto a napkin while still at the lunch table. With the help of an eager group of volunteers, they began building the Voyager the next year. Notably, the entire project relied solely on private funds and donations.

The creation of the Voyager posed several design challenges for the Rutans. Burt, the main project engineer, searched for just the right combination of materials to make the aircraft light enough to reach maximum efficiency and yet strong enough to sustain extremely long-distance flight. He also had to devise a way for the aircraft to hold the enormous amount of fuel necessary to power it, nonstop, around the globe. Eventually the Rutans decided to construct the Voyager's main structure/fuselage out of a space age composite material consisting mainly of graphite, Kevlar, and fiberglass. The structural weight of Voyager was only about 939 pounds (426 kilograms), but when its 17 fuel tanks were full, its takeoff weight exceeded 9,700 pounds (4,400 kilograms), or more than 10 times its structural weight. Voyager's wingspan was approximately 110 feet (36 meters). By the time the Voyager made its first test flight on June 22, 1984, the Rutans, Yeager, and scores of volunteers had spent more than 18 months and 22,000 hours working on the aircraft. After more than a year-and-a-half of testing and modifications on Voyager, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager were ready to attempt their record-setting flight.

Rutan, Yeager, and Voyager took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 8:01 a.m. on December 14, 1986. The plane needed almost the entire 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) of runway, which was already one of the world's longest airstrips, to become airborne; the aircraft did not lift off until it was approximately 14,200 feet (4,328 meters) down the runway, and then it did so only after sustaining a bit of damage. Due to the large amount of fuel contained in Voyager's wing tanks, the aircraft's wings bobbed up and down while accelerating down the runway, and in the process, about a foot of each wing tip chipped off. Concerned about the condition of their craft, Rutan and Yeager circled the airfield and checked their plane's handling conditions. Fortunately, the plane seemed sound enough to continue the journey....

The Frontiers of Flight - The Last Great World Record (1992) Rutan Voyager Part 1/4

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Be not too curious of Good and Evil;Seek not to count the future waves of Time;But be ye satisfied that you have lightEnough to take your step and find your foothold.